From Islamic Feminism to a Muslim
Holistic Feminism
Margot Badran*
Abstract This article looks at the trajectory from secular feminism to Islamic feminism to Muslim holistic
feminism, examining the changing meanings of  the secular and  the religious and the ways they intersect
in the different modes of feminism. It contrasts the open, inclusive nature that typifies the secular feminisms
Muslim and non-Muslims created in the twentieth century in contexts of anti-colonial struggle and early
nation-state building with the communalism of the new Muslim holistic feminism now emerging in global
space at a time when religious identity is fore-fronted and there is an international preoccupation with
Muslim women s rights. The article argues that the communalisation of women s rights activism or the
privileging of Muslim women s rights occurring at the global level and being exported to local terrain can be
divisive and threatening national unity.
1 Introduction broad-based local political work is needed to
A generation after the emergence on the global move from a patriarchal to an egalitarian model
scene of Islamic feminism, we are now witness to of the family.
the appearance of a  Muslim holistic feminism .
Like the pioneering secular feminism/s that Today, in an era of religious revival, communal
Muslims and non-Muslims created together early identity is fore-fronted. Social movement
in the last century in their national spaces, the organising is being exported by Muslim women
new Muslim holistic feminism draws upon from global to national spaces in contrast to
multiple discourses, including Islamic discourse. earlier practice in Muslim majority societies
But, unlike these secular feminisms, Muslim when feminist movements were locally grounded
holistic feminism is communally based (of, for, and organised within a national context. Nation-
and by Muslims) and globally anchored. based feminist movements, such as the
pioneering Egyptian feminist movement,
The final major feminist challenge that activists accessed the world of international feminism and
face today in Muslim majority countries is did so on its own terms. These national feminist
achieving equality in the family. Long after movements were organised and directed by
significant equality was realised in the public women as citizens of different religions.
domain (although this is unfinished business), Organising activism along communal lines and
gender inequality in the family remains exporting social movement activism from the
widespread, sustained by fiqh-backed, state- global arena to national space is new to our time.
enacted laws. Islamic feminist discourse has
made two potentially useful theoretical advances: This article reviews the historically changing
(1) breaking down the notion that the sphere of constructions of  the secular and  the religious ,
the family constitutes a separate domain positing at a time when they are politically over-loaded
instead a continuum of private/family and and central items in the linguistic arsenal. I
public/society; and (2) dismantling the notion observe the feminist trajectory from secular
that Islam ordains a patriarchal construction of feminism to Islamic feminism to the emerging
the family. This lays important groundwork for Muslim holistic feminism, pointing to the
arguing against gender inequality shored up by simultaneity of the different feminisms. I speak
Muslim family laws. However, intensive and of the communalisation of women s rights
IDS Bulletin Volume 42 Number 1 January 2011 © 2011 The Author. IDS Bulletin © 2011 Institute of Development Studies
Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA
78
activism and reflect on the implications of this at structures of thinking and the laws that express
the local level. The underlying argument here is them. To these tasks, we bring the various tools
that the communalisation of women s rights  or we possess, including our different vantage
the privileging of Muslim women s rights and its points and varied experiences.
export from the global to local terrain, is a
potentially divisive force that threatens national Egyptian feminist, Saiza Nabarawi (a close
cohesion and can constitute another element in partner of the pioneering feminist leader, Huda
the marginalisation of non-Muslim citizens. Sha rawi), confessed to me more than four
decades ago that the greatest disappointment of
2 Positionings and multiple identities the founding feminists was their inability to make
Like many women today, my positionings and significant headway in reforming the Muslim
identities are multiple and complex. It is as a life- Personal Status Code and their unhappiness over
long feminist, scholar-activist and historian of the injustices such failure perpetuates. I place
feminisms that I come to the subject of this myself alongside others in the long struggle to
article. As a young scholar in the 1960s, I began complete the quest for gender equality, and
research on the rise and evolution of feminism in especially the unfinished business of equality in
Egypt and the Middle East. From the 1990s, when the family and gender justice more broadly.
Islamic feminism was ascendant, I broadened my
scope to include the global Muslim world in which 3 The secular and the religious
it circulated. My feminism first bloomed four The equality struggle has been fought on terrain
decades ago as a form of consciousness, thinking, variously claimed, constituted and staked out over
activism simultaneously in the USA and in Egypt time and space by  the secular and  the religious .
while living, studying and moving between the The extent to which many have been imprisoned
two countries. I am a citizen of the USA by birth by terms taken to be far more narrow and static
and of Egypt by choice, allowed to me by the than the dynamic realities suggest, is striking. It
1
patriarchal structuring of naturalisation. I do not is also striking to observe how  the religious is
publically position myself within a religious equated with  the indigenous or  the authentic
framework and am not interested in having and  the secular with  the alien , a notion with a
legitimacy conferred or withheld by my religious history stretching back to colonial days.  Secular ,
identity. Irrespective of my religious affiliation which is often simplistically seen as religion s
and nationality through marriage to a Muslim other, needs to be unpacked and historicised. In
citizen, I am subject to Egypt s Muslim Personal Egypt, the term for secularism/secularisation was
Status Code. For more than four decades, I have coined in Arabic in the late nineteenth century as
been a  woman living under Muslim Law in almaniyya. It denoted a separation of state and
Egypt. When it was being formed in the mid- religious authority and the process by which the
1980s, I became part of the global network: modern state in formation assumed legal and
Women Living under Muslim Law (WLUML). As institutional responsibility for matters previously
one subject to the Muslim Personal Code in under the purview of the religious authorities
Egypt, I have an immediate stake in how it is (Badran 1999, 2009). The state during
re/constructed, and as I see it, a responsibility to secularisation took it upon itself to protect
become directly engaged in building a locally religion, not just Islam, but all religions. The
based movement. state instituted a system of secular education
leaving to Al Azhar, the ancient seat of religious
My analysis and interpretation of feminism, learning, the teaching of the Islamic sciences.
Islam and culture, come from my research and Law was secularised, with the exception of
my participation in debate, which are informed personal status or family law (this article uses the
by the world of lived realities. My activism is two terms interchangeably) that was left under
inspired by real-life challenges that I, along with the aegis of the religious authorities. The state
other women in the places where I live and work, enacted separate religiously backed personal
experience as we defend our rights  the right to status codes for Muslims and Christians.
speak, to be heard, to be equal and to be However, in the process of the codification of the
included as guaranteed to us as citizens by our Muslim Personal Status Code by the state in the
national constitutions. Our activism is directed early twentieth century, foreign elements were
towards achieving specific goals and changing absorbed (Sonbol 1996).
IDS Bulletin Volume 42 Number 1 January 2011 79
There have been different constructions of the secular state, branded  the secular as Western
secular in Muslim majority countries ranging and un-Islamic or anti-Islamic and, accordingly,
from the singular example of the total the secular state as illegitimate. In the 1970s and
evacuation of the religious from the state and 1980s the terms  secularism with religion and
public sphere in Turkey (although the secular  secularism without religion began to circulate
state retained administration of religious indicating two ways of understanding secularism.
properties including mosques), to the Egyptian However, the later meaning gained ground with
model that is described above and that was the continuing spread of political Islam (Badran
followed in the Arab countries of the east 2009) and the secular and the religious came to
3
Mediterranean and Iraq (the Arab east). In the be seen as stark and oppositional categories.
Maghreb, with its experience of French colonial
rule, different from the French mandate system Scholarship and ongoing historical investigation
in Syria and Lebanon and to the less directly is now showing ways the secular and the religious
interventionist British colonial practices, there have mutually constructed each other (Asad
was a sharper distinction and polarisation 2003; Hurd 2008). The persistent perception of
between the secular and the religious than in the  the religious and  the secular as distinct, that is
Arab east. These varying modes of secularism reinforced by political Islam, keeps alive the
have held diverse implications for feminism in notion of sharp and, indeed, antithetical
different national locations (Badran 1995; demarcations. As part of their polarising political
Kandiyoti 1991; Lazreg 1994; Thompson 2000). project, Islamists re-invigorate not only the
secular/religious binary but also East/West,
In Egypt, as elsewhere in the Arab east, the term public/private and male/female oppositions.
 secular was also used to denote a state whose Islamists assiduous promotion of the notion that
constitutions declare all citizens equal,  the secular is alien, foreign, non-native and
irrespective of religion and whose national hence inauthentic and that  the religious
2
cohesion was not based on religious affiliation. constitutes the indigenous, native and authentic
Countries like Egypt  under colonialism with is deliberately divisive and carries negative
policies of  divide and rule or declining Ottoman implications for feminisms.
suzerainty, which organised populations under its
control into separate millets ordered by religion 4 Secular and Islamic feminisms
and ethnicity  sought to construct themselves as Feminism, because it involves the awareness and
sovereign territorial countries and their analysis of gender inequality and women s
populations as equal citizens. The secular nation- deprivation of their rights and efforts by women
state signified a territorially based state to redress wrongs, poses a threat to entrenched
composed of equal citizens sharing a common patriarchal power and privilege. Feminism which
land. Early last century in the colonial and first appeared in Egypt and other Muslim-
postcolonial moment,  secular was also used to majority countries during the colonial era was
signify national specificity. For example, secular branded by its adversaries as Western and anti-
nationalism indicated Egyptian nationalism and Islamic and thus a pernicious form of colonial
the secular feminist movement signalled the cultural invasion. The notion of feminism as a
Egyptian feminist movement (Badran 1995). This Western and an alien assault upon religion  and
usage, however, gradually disappeared. of secular as Western and anti-religious 
re-enforced by Islamists, persists to this day.
In Egypt from the time the nation-state was
being consolidated early in the twentieth century History, however, reveals a different story. In
until around the 1970s, the term secular Egypt, from the moment Muslim women first
generally carried a positive connotation. This is began to articulate their feminism, they drew
not to say there were not those who previously inspiration from religion in seeking the
claimed that  secular was a synonym for restoration of their rights as women that Islam
 Western and un-religious , as the Muslim had granted them. Christians also claimed that
Brothers did following their creation in 1928. women s rights were religiously endorsed.
But, from the 1970s, the term secular began to Religious argumentation was embedded in the
be heavily demonised when the rising forces of secular (national) feminism that Muslims and
political Islam or Islamists who, in opposing the Christians as Egyptian citizens shaped together
80 Badran From Islamic Feminism to a Muslim Holistic Feminism
in the nation-state they shared and for whose scholars of Islam. In time, however, some came to
liberation they had fought side-by-side (Badran accept the term Islamic feminism.
1995). The nation-based secular feminism, which
Egyptians and others created in the early It might be seen as ironic that the scholar who
twentieth century emerged in the form of social has been credited with writing the first book-
movements. These feminist movements were length text of Islamic feminism was a secular
connected to secular nationalist movements feminist. Moroccan feminist sociologist, Fatima
agitating for independence from colonial rule  Mernissi, troubled by the rampant misogyny
calling simultaneously for women s rights and perpetuated in the name of Islam in the form of
national rights  and were at the same time part hadiths (reported sayings and deeds of the Prophet
of movements for religious reform (Jayawardena Mohammed) to denigrate and intimidate women
1986). Following national independence, secular undertook her own investigation of hadiths. Using
feminists directed their attention to building classical Islamic methodologies, she exposed
new institutions of state and society inclusive of many commonly circulating misogynist hadiths as
women using constitutional, democratic, and spurious (Mernissi 1987 in French; 1991 in
humanitarian arguments. Secular feminists English). Moroccan cultural studies specialist,
argued for equality in the public sphere (that is, Raja Rhouni, who offers an incisive analysis of
the secular public sphere, not the domain of the Mernissi s work and through the example of
religious professions and ritual which would late Mernissi, demonstrates ways individuals may
be taken up by Islamic feminism), while in the generate and operate within the framework of
domain of the family they upheld the notion of both secular and Islamic feminisms (Rhouni
the complementarity of gender roles, not gender (2009).
equality, which in keeping with the general
knowledge of their day, they accepted as An early collective contribution to the production
ordained by religion and nature (Badran 1995). of Islamic feminism came from Sisters in Islam
(SIS), created by professional, scholarly, and
Unlike secular feminism s emergence in the form activist women in Malaysia in the 1980s, and
of a social movement, Islamic feminism burst on the credited as being the first Islamic feminist
global scene in the late twentieth century in the association. Since many practices oppressive to
form of a discourse  a trenchant religiously women were justified in the name of religion,
framed discourse of gender equality. Muslim Sisters in Islam proceeded from women s real-life
women in different parts of the globe from Iran experience to Qur anic investigation. They took
to Malaysia as well as in the West simultaneously up the issue of wife-beating, for example, and
in the late 1980s and the 1990s began to demonstrated that the Qur an did not condone
articulate a discourse of women s rights and the practice as many have been led to believe.
gender equality going directly to the Qur an and They disseminated their findings in accessible
other religious texts, exercising their own ijtihad language via inexpensive pamphlets in order to
or independent critical examination. Iranian reach a wide public (Badran 1999, 2009). The
legal anthropologist Ziba Mir-Hosseini, and a idea of scholarship-activism that became central
major figure in the production of the new to Islamic feminism was first manifested by
gender-sensitive Islamic knowledge, was among Sisters in Islam, and indeed, many women, whom
the first to report what she called  a feminist others labelled Islamic feminists, called
4
reading of the Shari a (Mir-Hosseini 1996)  that themselves scholar-activists (Webb 2000).
some secular feminist Muslims in different parts
of the world would soon label Islamic feminism In the West, Muslim women from convert and
(Badran 1999). It is important to note that those immigrant communities in the USA produced
who have been recognised as the producers of what soon became regarded as key foundational
this new discourse did not regard their texts of Islamic feminism. African-American
formulations of gender equality and gender theologian Amina Wadud (also one of the
justice grounded in their re-readings of religious founders of Sisters in Islam) articulated a theory
texts as  Islamic feminism . Indeed they typically of gender equality based on her Qur anic
rejected this term and did not identify hermeneutic work first published in Kuala
themselves as feminists (of any sort) but Lumpur (Wadud 1991) and later in New York
preferred to position themselves as committed (Wadud 1999). She followed this up later with a
IDS Bulletin Volume 42 Number 1 January 2011 81
powerful statement of human equality embedded head-way was achieved. In Turkey, Tunisia, and
in what she calls the  tawhidic paradigm , south Yemen, the few places where advances
demonstrating that God is unique and above were made in the twentieth century towards
human beings who are on the same plane and progressive  but not fully egalitarian  family
equal to each other (Wadud 2008). Pakistani- laws, they were bestowed from on high by the
American international relations scholar Asma states, which used family law reform as part of
Barlas, deconstructed patriarchy and the their larger political and nation-building agendas
inequality it perpetuated in the name of Islam (Kandiyoti 1991; Charrad 2001; Molyneux 1991).
Barlas (2002). The work of Wadud and Barlas
was soon translated into many languages It was only in the twenty-first century (in Turkey
commonly spoken by Muslims, enabling activists and Morocco) when the interests of feminists
in their struggle to reform Muslim family laws to and the state coincided, that the patriarchal
offer compelling argumentation that the model of the family was overturned in favour of
patriarchy is un-Islamic. an egalitarian model. The 2001 revisions of the
secular Turkish Civil Code and the 2004 fiqh-
An Islamic discourse of equality has broad backed Moroccan Mudawana cast husband and
implications. Wadud s tawhidic paradigm applies wife as equal heads of family. The Turkish Civil
not simply to Muslims but to all human beings  Code of 1926, which had gone the furthest in
to the equality all citizens irrespective of gender dismantling the patriarchal model of the family,
and religion. Indeed, non-Muslims as well as fell short in enshrining the husband as head of
Muslims have welcomed Islamic feminism s family, revealing that gender inequalities could
articulation of equality. be sustained not only in Islamically backed law
but in secular law as well. This was contrary to
The following two sections look at shifts in the widespread belief that secular law, especially
feminist organising. The first section looks at law explicitly modelled on a western prototype
locally grounded citizen-inclusive feminist (the Turkish law was patterned after the Swiss
activism within the context of a Muslim-majority model), meant full gender equality.
country. The second section discusses exclusivist
communalised feminist activism spearheaded by The 2004 Mudawana, as the only existing fiqh-
a Muslim women s global network and exported backed egalitarian family law, serves as a powerful
to national locations. inspiration today for women in other countries.
The Moroccan example demonstrates that fiqh-
5 Secular and Islamic feminisms: local ground, backed family legislation is not immutable sacred
shared interests, mutual need law and shows that it is possible within an Islamic
Secular and Islamic feminisms have been framework to enact into law an egalitarian model
mutually re-enforcing. Not only is there an of the family. The Moroccan and Turkish cases
important secular feminist past behind Islamic show the importance of independent feminist
feminism but also an ongoing side-by-side organising  and in the Moroccan instance, the
presence of the two feminisms. Activists have power of combined secular and Islamic feminist
used both secular and Islamic discourses in their argumentation. The Turkish and Moroccan
campaigns to achieve women s rights and gender revisions came after two decades of intense
equality. In the early twentieth century, secular feminist activism and at a moment when the
feminists accessed Islamic modernist discourse regimes in both countries found it in their political
and from the late twentieth century, they drew interest to switch from a patriarchal to an
upon the new Islamic feminist discourse. While egalitarian model of family law. In demanding
some feminists prefer to use only constitutional reform of their secular family law, Turkish activists
and human rights arguments, in campaigns to advanced arguments drawn from democratic and
reform fiqh-backed family laws, activists must use human rights discourse (Toprak 2010). Moroccan
Islamic arguments. activists, as just noted, marshalled both Islamic
and secular arguments (Mir-Hosseini 2009;
Although feminist organising, which goes back to Balchin 2009: 224; Pruzan 2011). In Turkey and
the early twentieth century in Egypt, included Morocco, countries with miniscule minorities,
calls for the reform of Muslim family law as an family law activists were virtually all Muslims.
integral part of its comprehensive agenda, little
82 Badran From Islamic Feminism to a Muslim Holistic Feminism
In Egypt and other Arab countries of the east measures inhibit independent activist organising
Mediterranean and Iraq (unlike Turkey and of any sort. Emergency law in effect in Egypt for
Morocco) there are well-established Christian over three decades enables a wide range of
communities with ancient roots. Women from escalating security measures aimed at
these communities formed an integral part of controlling perceived Islamist threats.
early twentieth century nationalist and feminist Significant change in the Muslim Personal Status
movements in Egypt. In organising, setting Code in Egypt could ignite Islamist opposition
priorities and strategising, feminists understood which the state is fearful to risk and therefore
that it was important to their success that their such reform is stalled.
feminist movements gained the backing and
input of a wide base of citizenry. The composition The feminist struggle to reform Muslim family
of the feminist movement, like the nationalist law in Egypt is first and foremost an internal
movement, reflected the religious diversity that battle (as it was in Turkey and Morocco).
was a hallmark of Egypt and a source of strength. Egyptian women in their long history of feminist
Demands for the reform of the Muslim Personal activist work exploited international and
Status Code were an integral part of the regional or transnational forums and networks
comprehensive feminist agenda in Egypt, which when they decided it could serve their interests.
Muslim and Christian women jointly created and They remained in charge of their own agenda
supported. even in the early and middle decades of the last
century in international forums under the
Today in the context of widespread religious shadow of imperial feminisms (Badran 1995;
revival and assertion of religious identity, the Rupp 1997). Today, broad collaboration across
broad cooperation that has been a fundamental lines of religion and locally anchored feminist
mark of Egyptian feminist campaigning  activism are threatened in ways discussed below.
including the push for the reform of the Muslim
Personal Status Code  is now threatened by the 6 From secular and Islamic feminist collaboration
spread of communalism. One of the first areas to communalism; from the global to the local
affected by the intensifying communalisation is There has been positive synergy between secular
the now century-old cooperative effort in Egypt feminism and Islamic feminism and cooperation
in seeking reform of the Muslim Personal Status between activists of different religions, as noted
Code. above. Increasingly, however, communalism is
threatening the collaboration of Muslim and
Not only is broad work critical to success in non-Muslim citizens and internal cohesion
altering any state-enacted laws, including the within nations. I am not interested here in the
Muslim Personal Status Code, but the Egyptian communalism among the ranks of the religious
Muslim Personal Status Code directly affects and political conservatives, but rather how
more than just Muslims. It is not only Muslims communalism is being fed from within the world
but some non-Muslims who fall under the of feminism and more specifically through
purview of the Muslim Personal Status Code, and progressive Muslim women s global organising. I
who accordingly have a direct interest in reform look at Musawah (equality in Arabic), which is a
work. The non-Muslims include wives of Muslims transnational organisation created and run by
(typically of foreign origin) and Christians and for Muslims. Musawah announced itself as  A
belonging to different denominations in Egypt, global movement for equality and justice in the
who in seeking divorce (to give one example), Muslim Family at its launch in the spring of
fall under the jurisdiction of the Muslim law 2009 at a large conference in Kuala Lumpur. The
(Tadros 2009). event was hosted by Sisters in Islam, the veteran
Islamic feminist organisation now two decades
Now in Egypt, more than ever before, broad- old, which has played a central role in the
5
based political work is necessary not only to creation of Musawah.
achieve feminist goals but in the interests of
national unity, which is threatened by Musawah is directed by a small nucleus of
communalism. Feminist, democracy and human Muslim women that focuses on the reform of
rights movements need to re-enforce each other Muslim family laws. Musawah s planning
but this is difficult as heavy state security committee is composed of a small group that
IDS Bulletin Volume 42 Number 1 January 2011 83
includes highly respected scholars and seasoned feminists proceeded from their national base to
activists, some with roots in Islamic feminism access the world of international feminism and
and others with more secular experience used its forums and networks on their own terms.
(Musawah 2009; www.musawah.org). In the run- Their international organising (what they called
up to its launch, Musawah held a number of  international would now be referred to as
closed planning committee meetings, including  transnational ) was grounded in national
one in Cairo in 2007, and post-launch held a associations which functioned as the centres of
meeting in Cairo in January 2010. For an gravity. Third, secular feminism emerged on the
organisation aiming for massive global outreach, scene in the form of organic social movements in
Musawah runs a tight ship, as was noticed in progress, while the new Muslim holistic feminism
6
Cairo last winter. Egypt will be the upcoming of Musawah surfaced as an envisioned movement.
focal point for activism conducted through the Fourth, secular feminism was organised by
local NGO called the Center for Egyptian politicised women who were first and foremost
Women s Legal Assistance (CEWLA) whose head activists, while the new Muslim holistic feminism
and founder is Azza Suleiman, a lawyer and as the product of scholar-activists exhibits a
member of Musawah s planning committee highly developed theoretical structure. Fifth,
(www.cewla.org; Abu-Lughod 2010a,b). secular feminism began and long remained
voluntary and self-funding and has preserved this
The Musawah Framework for Action (Musawah tradition, even as it has become increasingly
2009) and Musawah publication Wanted: Why  NGO-ised to use Islah Jad s expression, and
Equality and Justice Now (Anwar 2009) prepared although some secular feminists as NGO leaders
for the launch and edited by Zainah Anwar, and staff are now remunerated their
president of Sisters in Islam, explain that the organisations retain the openness that has been
organisation takes a holistic approach to rights the mark of secular feminism (Jad 2004). Muslim
work, using multiple discourses including holistic feminism is being jump-started by
 religious, human rights, constitutional, and income-earning professional women, public
fundamental guarantees, and women s lived intellectuals, and NGO-ers who are savvy, well-
realities (Anwar 2009). The religious discourse connected, cosmopolitan and income-earning
holds a special prominence, as indicated in the (Abu-Lughod 2010a).
stunning collection of papers published in Wanted
by leading scholars of Islam and prominent The new holistic Muslim feminism is being
activists whose work has influenced both Islamic propelled during a moment when the USA and
and secular feminists. other Western governments are endeavouring to
produce moderate Muslims and moderate or
Because of its communalism, I call Musawah s moderated behaviours, in the context of their
project  Muslim holistic feminism . In using larger political and security concerns and Muslim
Islamic feminism s theorisation of equality and women are seen as ideal agents (Abu-Lughod
justice grounded in religious sources, together 2010a). The pioneering secular feminism of the
with the secular discourses of democracy and last century, on the other hand, emerged in the
human rights, the new Muslim holistic feminism context of intense anti-colonial struggles.
echoes the multi-stranded discursive approach
that characterised the secular feminism which A glimpse at Musawah s focus on  equality and
emerged in Egypt early in the last century and justice in the Muslim family provides an insight
was developed elsewhere in the region. As such, into the new Muslim holistic feminism in the
secular feminism was a holistic feminism before making and what separates it from secular
the term  holism came into use. We have seen feminism which dealt with the functional family
earlier that  secular was another way to convey (unqualified by religion) along with trying to
holistic. reform Muslim family law. One asks of
Musawah:  Why the Muslim family? Is this an
However, there are clear differences in these two elision between  the Muslim family and Muslim
holistic feminisms. First, the pioneering secular family law? But, more to the point,  What is  the
feminism was created by Muslims and non- Muslim family ? This is a question I asked at
Muslims together as citizens in their respective Musawah s launch but no answer was
countries. Second, as just mentioned, secular forthcoming and at a subsequent conference held
84 Badran From Islamic Feminism to a Muslim Holistic Feminism
in Cairo, I asked some Musawah members again context of global feminism and their
to no avail. Avoidance of the question of what constituencies. The appearance on the scene of
constitutes a Muslim family indicates reluctance communal feminism, that I have called  Muslim
on the part of Muslim holistic feminists to deal holistic feminism , is a striking new departure that
with the contemporary reality of the religiously deserves attention. I have looked at this
mixed marriage about which An-Na im and phenomenon as expressed through Musawah
others have written (An-Na im 2005). This (although there are other sites where Muslim
indicates the limits, or the hesitation, of holistic feminism is appearing) to consider its
communally based feminism to deal with intra- implications. Muslim holistic feminism is still early
religious gender issues and especially those in the making and like other works in progress, it
related to the family. is fluid and not always consistent in its self-
presentation, which can be viewed as a mark of
The intention of this article has been to look at the creative dynamism. I have raised irksome issues
porosities and complexities of  the secular and out of the conviction that acknowledging them is
 the religious as they play out in the feminisms essential to dealing with them  to discovering the
Muslim women have created, together with conceptual, practical, and political possibilities and
women from other religions, as well as separately limits of various approaches. I end with three
in national and global spaces. I wanted to reflect questions: (1) Whose interests do the new Muslim
on the continuities as well as the new directions in holistic feminists serve? (2) How can the rights of
feminist thinking and activism in the context the communal and the national be honoured in the
shifting grounds. I wanted to look at this from fluid spaces between the secular and the religious?
within the context of the nation-state and the (3) Does secular feminism have a future?
Notes result in the Islamicisation of law. The latter
* I would like to thank Mariz Tadros for inviting changes occurred in the context of the spread
me to the workshop,  Religious Framings of of Islamism.
Gender Policies and Practices , at the Institute 3 In the 1970s and 1980s when  almaniyya bila din
for Development Studies at the University of began to be used to signify secularism without
Sussex and the participants of the workshop religion, the implication was that  almaniyya
for two days of lively debate and provocative did not necessarily imply secularism as devoid
discussion during which a range of views was of religion. Although with the spread of
brought to the fore. The workshop provided an Islamic secularism it became commonly
excellent opportunity to share ideas in understood as un-Islamic and even anti-
formation as well as the fruits of longer work. I Islamic. I remember discussing this shift in
thank also Philippa Strum, my colleague at the meaning with colleagues at the time.
Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, who 4 Gisela Webb (2000: xi xix), the centrality
read the final version of this article. Finally I scholarship-activist and the scholar-activist in
would like to convey my thanks to the many Muslim women s theoretical and applied work
friends and colleagues with whom I have had on women, gender, and Islam, points specifically
the privilege of enjoying a moveable feast of to North American experience. Later, a South
conversations, in cyber and real space, on African scholar of Islam and gender, Sa diyya
issues raised in this article, and many more. Shaikh found that the battered women she
1 Foreign women married to Egyptian citizens interviewed developed what she calls a  tafsir
are permitted citizenship, while foreign men (exegesis) of praxis finding for themselves a
married to Egyptians are not. contradiction between the ethical message of the
2 The secular and religious have been Qur an and the brutalities they experienced at the
complexly interwoven in the  secular state as hands of their Muslim husbands (Shaikh 2007).
the case of Egypt has illustrated, where the 5 I participated in this event held in Kuala
constitution declares Islam to be the state Lumpur attending the plenary events and
religion and where the 1971 constitution breakout sessions as well as engaging in
declared the Sharia to be a source of law and numerous conversations.
the 1980 constitution declares that the Sharia 6 I was in Cairo at the time and heard
is the source of all law (not just the Muslim complaints from Muslims about exclusivity,
Personal Status Code). However, this did not who were eager to be in the loop.
IDS Bulletin Volume 42 Number 1 January 2011 85
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